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Month: April 2002

Hello, Supremes: A Federal court in St. Louis has ruled that videogames aren’t a form of speech and are therefore not protected by the First. Count on an appeal, and look for more on this in or around this space. Bad decision, very bad decision…

Truly pathetic — this group of lottery players, who have “always been real spiritual,” decide that one of their number won the lottery and was cheating them out of their share after calling in sick for work for three days. Real spiritual. Great.

I’m pleased to report that this week is off to a more normal start: whereas this time 168 hours ago I was (oh geez) feeling kinship with Steve Jobs, today I’m shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill Gates, certainly a more natural if not less troubling location. I’m with Bill: Don’t apologize if you don’t mean it. You’ll annoy your friends, you won’t placate your enemies, and you’ll give dangerous encouragement to the stupid. (A matter of keeping your job, you say? In that case your ethicist gives you permission to lie, but suggests that you should try to get away from people like your employers ASAP. God knows what they’ll have you doing next.)

A very strange week indeed, as later account will detail. For now, I’m camping out at my friend Arminda’s house, since my apartment building has neither hot water, nor heat, nor light in the public areas. Most disconcerting. If the garbage weren’t being taken away daily, I’d think something was wrong. (Attention non-New Yorkers: Yes, this is how you know. Big city. Stuff goes wrong. Could be worse; I could live in the one that blew up yesterday.)

Dear lord, someone actually thinks this is their right: A nasty little program called Radlight is taking it upon itself to remove software from your computer without your permission so it can show you more ads (oh, goody!).Vile, vile, vile — this company deserves whatever the Geek-American community’s about to unleash on it. (Like the man said, on my signal…)